NOVEL WEB 1.56 Ferrying Souls~
"I could finally get some work done," Ning sighed, looking at the empty alchemy hall.
For the past month, Ning had refrained from taking any 'unique' action. He already knew that he had piqued the interest of his master with not only his unique talent but also his loot. So, it was unwise to continue showing his specialty any longer.
After all, too much of a good thing may not necessarily be good anymore.
Ning had been patiently biding his time. Especially since he had realized that he seemed to have provoked some interesting reaction from his master, so it was only natural to be prepared to receive the focus of his master.
While it was good, as he was able to clear his doubts regarding alchemy and work further to create even stronger drugs, it was uncomfortable nonetheless. So, he did not want to arouse any more attention by doing inexplicable things.
Of course, now that the master has gone away, Ning could finally start taking action.
...
After greeting the senior sister at the reception desk in the mission hall, Ning quickly spoke of the task at hand.
"Senior Sister, I am here for the mission," Ning informed the receptionist's sister.
"Finally! Junior brother, it has not been easy for me to keep this mission for you," Senior Sister Jiu complained.
Ning just scratched his cheek hearing that and quickly took out a box from his space pouch. "Senior Sister, this is something I found at the market. It's not worth much, but I am sure this will look good on your long straight hair."
On the box were several exquisite jade hairpins. There were no spiritual fluctuations, and they were of very low value to cultivators, but they were exquisite and seemed to have been carefully selected.
"This is a bribe, isn't it?" Even though Senior Sister Jiu said so, it was obvious she liked the gift very much, as her eyes shined gazing at the beautiful pins.
"Of course not. I am just paying respect for the care of my senior. I am offended that senior sister thinks so lowly of me," Ning denied, looking 'offended.'
"Oh, please, no one would be fooled by your bad acting, junior brother. But still, I can feel your so-called respect. You should be glad I like you enough not to report you for trying to bribe me," Senior Sister Jiu closed the box and teased Ning.
"Is that so? I am honored that the great Senior Sister Jiu thinks so highly of little old me," Ning played along, even putting an obviously fake moved expression on his face.
Senior Sister Jiu covered her mouth and chuckled, "Well, that's enough playing for today. Here is your mission paper."
[Guard the inner sect cemetery for a week.
Reward: 100 spirit stones.]
"This is perfect," Ning muttered, clearly satisfied. "Thank you very much, senior sister."
"Hmph! You better be grateful. Usually, unless reserved in advance, such missions would never see the light of day on the mission board. A cemetery is perfect for those practicing Yin techniques, so you would be hard-pressed to find any mission related to it. I had to deny other disciples to save this mission for you, y'know," Senior Sister Jiu spoke, clearly emphasizing her part in securing the mission.
"You have indeed 'suffered,' senior sister," Ning's lips twitched, glancing at the dramatic senior sister of his.
Still, Ning was glad that his social grind was starting to pay off.
As someone who played RPGs, Ning knew better than to cross the task managers, for he knew that their power was immeasurable. If angered, they might very well stick you with an annoying quest.
Thankfully, Ning, ever so wise, swiftly moved towards befriending Senior Sister Jiu. It was not that hard, since he seemed to be one of the only ones who could rival Senior Sister Jiu in a bit of theatrics. So, with the help of a little 'respect,' banter, and theatrics, he was able to secure himself a good 'friend.'
Ning was sure that without Senior Sister Jiu, the next step of his plan would be annoying to do otherwise.
While Ning's thoughts turned quickly, Senior Sister Jiu quickly wrote down some stuff and handed a small jade talisman to Ning.
"This is the entry passageway for resolving the formation surrounding the cemetery. Also, junior brother, it is forbidden to mess around with the graves in the cemetery." Ning nodded and jotted the rules in his memory.
After a few small talks, Ning also got ready to depart.
"Then, I would get going, senior sister," Ning nodded.
"Take care, junior brother." Looking at this gentle junior brother of hers, she gave a friendly reminder.
Ning cupped his fist, "I will, senior sister."
...
The graveyard was present in the northern part of the inner sect.
There were various legends surrounding this burial ground, for instance, it was said that one could see a white silhouette flashing around in the graveyard, or a screeching sound could be heard coming from the depths of the courtyard.
Ning concluded that this was just a prank by some disciples or a way for elders to teach the disciples a lesson by giving them a horror experience as a punishment for funsies.
Of course, Ning knew that it was impossible for the Pure Qi sect to raise ghosts in their backyard. The formation that Senior Sister spoke of was not a protective array but rather an array that suppresses the birth of ghosts.
The cultivation world was not scientific by any means, so it was rather normal for strong obsessions produced by cultivators to give rise to ghosts after their demise.
As quite a few disciples died every year, the number of graves built in the yard continued to increase over the years.
Some died because of a mistake in their cultivation...
Some died in fights...
Some died trying to play hero saving the beauty...
Of course, there were also disciples who died antagonizing the protagonist...
Ning didn't care about that much as he finally reached the graveyard.
Under the moonlight, tombstones were erected next to each other. Burials were stacked on top of each other, and a cold wind was blowing.
The burial mound was quite crowded, as the graves were never replaced in the graveyard.
"This place does look quite creepy. No wonder there are so many rumors about this place," Ning felt a small chill in his back due to the abundance of Yin Qi present here.
Ning closed the formation behind him, and after taking a few rounds around the graveyard, securing each pathway, he started to take action.
[Soul Ferrying Scripture]
Reciting the scripture in his mind, golden spots started to appear in his view. They were the dead souls of the cultivators.
Seeing this, Ning licked his lips slightly.
..
.
"It's reincarnation time."
...
..
The mortality rate in this world was off the charts. It far outclassed the mortality rate compared to his previous life.
Each week, one or two disciples quietly passed away in the Pure Qi sect. This situation was not only prevalent in the Pure Qi sect but also all around the world.
In this world, where there were superpowered individuals who could refine the sun and moon and various beasts who competed with them, this high death rate was not surprising indeed.
Ning still remembered how Xiao Fan slaughtered a group of disciples like it was just another Tuesday. That was kind of brutal.
Compared to that, Ning devouring a soul was obviously not a big deal, right? At least he felt so.
Of course, the reason he paid so much attention to this was that after the death of these people, they left behind their souls.
The souls which he could ferry away.
So, looking at these unclaimed souls, Ning just had a single thought.
This was all free real estate.
...
So, he got to work.
[Soul Ferrying Scripture]
[Soul Ferrying Scripture]
[Soul Ferrying Scripture]
Walking around the graveyard, Ning recited the Buddhist scripture in his mind, sending the souls into the afterlife and giving them hope of reincarnation.
"Ferry away, buddy," Ning muttered, sending away the soul of a foundation-building cultivator.
The Pure Qi sect has a history of almost 300 years. In the modern world, this time was enough to pass several generations, but the sense of time in this world differed from his previous life.
A healthy Qi cultivator has a lifespan of 100 years, and a foundation-building cultivator could live up to at least 180 years.
"It's a pity that few could ever live up to their entire lifespan," Ning couldn't help but think so.
Ever since the Pure Qi sect had been established, moments of peace were few and far between. Be it the war with the other sect for ownership of spiritual veins or the beast tides that occurred at intervals, the cultivators dropped like flies.
Of course, this was very beneficial for Ning. He knew that it was very hard for him to increase his mental strength without the help of pills, so this time, he cultivated his mental strength to the brim.
So, in this entire journey, Ning was very happy. Feeling both his physical and mental state strengthened, it was hard to keep the grin off his face.
Thankfully, Ning was alone currently in the graveyard; otherwise, he would surely spook some people with how wide his smile was considering the current location. It would be hard not to call him a deviant at that point.
...
I ferry soul here~
I ferry soul there~
I ferry soul everywhere~
Well, not everywhere...
"Soul Ferrying Scripture," Ning tried to ferry a foundation-building soul, receiving strong resistance in return. He could see the golden soul try to remain with fervent passion, probably due to their strong obsession.
From these recent soul-ferrying experiences, Ning's comprehension of this ability had quite a bit. For instance, he figured out the mechanism behind the strengthening of his soul.
Ferrying souls effectively meant that he was sending these souls into reincarnation, and giving all these dead people another chance to live.
In a sense, he was saving lives out here. It was for this reason that heaven provided merit to him and strengthened his body and soul. It was an equivalent exchange.
But the souls themselves also had a role to play in this exchange. If the soul did not want to depart, then he would not get any merit from successfully ferrying the soul. Similarly, he found that the main reason he was able to harness this merit was probably due to the blessing of the deceased soul itself for giving them another try at life.
This explains why Ning could not get merit when he tried to ferry the animals he had killed directly. With how intense their resentment was, it was already good that he was not gaining any bad karma, let alone getting their blessing for killing them. This discovery also thwarted one of his nefarious plots.
Ah! How he wished he could get endless strengthening by killing just some ants instead.
But that was not meant to be.
"Another failure, huh? These souls are really too stubborn for their own good." Ning was not surprised by failing at this either. To ferry soul, if there was too much of a gap in strength unless he got their consent, he could not reincarnate them, let alone gain their merit.
It was a bummer, but it was not without its respite either.
"If I ferry everything here, then the Yin Qi would decrease drastically," Ning mumbled as he intimately felt the space around him, feeling the invisible formation surrounding the cemetery with his spiritual sense.
"Thankfully, there was no change in formation from my work." Ning narrowed his eyes.
The main function of this formation was to suppress the state of the soul to reduce the chances of giving birth to ghosts. This naturally made this place filled with Yin Qi, attracting the Yin Qi cultivators.
If he tried to ferry everything with all his strength, the formation would react in an instant due to the drastic changes in the surroundings and alert the higher-ups. So, Ning could not go overboard and try to ferry every soul lest he attract even more attention.
It hindered Ning, but he didn't feel too bad about it. He could ferry the souls present precisely due to this formation.
The effect of this formation was to slowly dissipate the soul present here so that it could return to heaven and earth in a stable manner. This method reduced the chances of giving birth to something weird and also prolonged the shelf life of the soul present here.
From Ning's experiment, he knew that normally the soul dissipates in heaven and earth after a couple of days in the case of normal animals. The higher the cultivation, the longer it would take for the soul to dissipate and return to the afterlife.
Along the way, those with excessive amounts of negative emotions and extremely strong obsessions change into ghosts and plague the people, bringing forth disaster.
So, with this formation, Ning had quite a number of souls to ferry.
Otherwise, who knew how many souls would still be left for him to ferry? Especially those decades-old foundation-building souls?
...
As the diamond mark glowed with a pure feeling, Ning recited the soul-ferrying scripture and pointed towards a golden spot in front of him.
The golden spot was obviously a soul; it slightly resembled a male cultivator, but decades of weakening made it unclear. With the soul-ferrying scripture, the golden soul suddenly seemed to be attracted by something, as it transformed into countless light particles and vanished from sight.
In this week, Ning carefully managed the number of souls he ferried not to show any flaws. He ferried all the foundation-building experts who were on the verge of dissipating and a few strong ones.
In total, he ferried six foundation-building souls, around seventy-eight qi cultivator souls, and a lot of mortal souls. He left a few recently dead souls of foundation-building cultivators and several qi cultivator souls in their normal soul state and didn't touch them.
While the density of the Yin Qi would decrease slightly with his handiwork, it would not drop to the point that it would alarm the higher-ups. Ning was very careful regarding this.
"Still, this trip was worth it," Ning thought with a smile.
Not only did it strengthen his soul and body, but he also gained a deeper insight into the Soul Ferrying Scripture after ferrying this many souls.
Of course, this was not the only gain; Ning was also able to find the difference between ferrying the soul of a normal human and ferrying the soul of a cultivator.
And oh boy! Ferrying a mortal and a cultivator had quite a difference.
[Early Stage Qi Cultivator = Ferrying 1 normal human soul.
Mid Stage Qi Cultivator = Ferrying 3 normal human souls.
Late Stage Qi cultivator = Ferrying 7 normal human souls.
Peak stage Qi cultivator = Ferrying 10 normal human souls.
Foundation-building Stage cultivator = Ferrying a hundred normal human souls.]
The exact difference might not be the same for every being, but approximately, Ning was quite sure about his calculations. Although he couldn't exactly distinguish between the foundation-building stage cultivators, he knew that he gained a lot. Approximately, he had ferried at least 666 normal human souls.
Ferrying so many souls made Ning reach another level of high due to the increment in the quality of his soul.
"But now, the fun time is over," Ning couldn't help but say in sorrow. After all, he had already completed the mission in this graveyard, and he didn't want to show his feet taking another chance.
Now, the only way to have a lot of souls to ferry is to chance upon a massacre. Or, let me start one myself and let it spiral downwards from then on?
...
..
.
Of course, Ning was just kidding. Unless...
...
A/N: Ning'er don't turn to the dark side even if they got the cookies...
Thanks for reading~
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